At a time when tempers are rising and we are being treated to a rather crude and vulgar display of verbal pyrotechnics and hammy acting on the part of pundits and politicians alike, it would pay to take some objective distance from the current sad state of Malaysian politics in order to stare at ourselves in the face and ask the important question: Why are we in the present state we find ourselves in today, and how did we get here?

By Farish A. Noor

As of last week Malaysia has entered the inglorious list of countries where inter-religious tensions have risen to the point where places of worship have been attacked. Notwithstanding the identity of the attackers concerned, and what could have possibly motivated their actions, the cost of these developments are high and perhaps even permanent, as Malaysia is now being unfavourably compared to countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Indonesia where temples, mosques and churches have been put to the torch. An appalling start to a new year and a new decade if there ever was one, and one that bodes ill for Malaysia’s ambitions to be regarded as a nation-state with some pretense of civility and development.

Nonetheless other commentators have reminded us to look beyond the fiery discourse and to identify the real economic-structural issues that continue to bedevil the nation. Others have called on Malaysians to remain steadfast in adhering to our principles of belief and not to show fear in the face of violent sectarian bigotry and hate-mongering.

Beyond these moot points however remain also real structural and material concerns that ought to be brought to our attention, and which make themselves readily visible as soon as we turn off our emotional buttons and analyse these developments with some degree of cold objectivity.

For a start, we need to look at the state of this nation-in-the-making and seriously ask ourselves if the Malaysian project can even be sustained in the face of such pressures. Now any historian will tell you that nations are neither historically determined nor are their existential status guaranteed or necessitated by the vagaries of history. There is nothing that determines the existential status of a nation save the wilfull desire on the part of its members to deliberately put it together and to collectively sustain the notion of a shared identity. No essentialist premises are there to serve as solid ground, no primordial attachments that can be defended by recourse to itself. Nations are composite and accidental entities and can only be sustained by those who are its members.

Yet looking at the state of Malaysian politics and society today, we see that all the feeble attempts to cobble together a Malaysian nation - be it in the name of ‘1Malaysia’, ‘Malaysian Malaysia’ or what have you, are being dashed against the hard rocks of sectarian communitarian interests that are short-sighted and being articulated by those who do not even believe that there can or should be a Malaysian nation that is complex and diverse in the first place. And to cap it off, our febrile attempts at injecting some degree of pluralism and complexity into the Malaysian story is one that stops short of narrow essentialist claims of communal solidarity and difference instead, be it on the basis of race/ethnicity, culture, language or religion.

Read more at: A Cold Look At The State Of Malaysia Today

Comments (10)

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written by Buayanegara, January 13, 2010 12:16:30

Why not enforce the ruling of the Syariah Courts on the imposition of alimony instead o stealing money from the Rakayaat to pay for the philandering of umno muslim men?
How many ordinary MUSLIM can afford more than one wife ? Only umno cronies and datoks so if they don't pay alimony attest their salary through the INCOME TAX DEPT don't encourage the philanders.
R u making up a story to bleed the Nation again as who can be sure the money is really paid to these divorcees.
GOD SAVE this CUNTREE !!

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written by losyot, January 13, 2010 00:12:51

Whatever you say la bro!
I can only say one word.
MALANG-SIA

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written by educationist, January 12, 2010 18:20:43

"..all I can say is that I have seen it all before, in all the broken, tattered, dysfunctional states I have had the misfortune to visit and study."- thank you dr farish for that cold unbiased analysis.
Of course, the uMNOputras will dispute your analysis.
in this instant, i hope they will prove u wrong, that all is not lost, that we have not gone so far down the road of irreparable damage.

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written by Buayanegara, January 12, 2010 17:41:25

Farish,
what u say is so true ! The fabric of a nation is feeble and brittle and an be torn and broken easily . Thus a country's leaders must be responsible and seen to be responsible and steadfast in their words and actions. Instead of stirring up sentiment by indulging on racist themes, they should embark and emphasise on topics of Unity.
However what do we have here ? Leaders who are not only helpless in controlling plunderers and chauvinistic personalities in their own Party who indulge in in actions detrimental to National Unity and International Standing but most probably r in connivance with them to ensure their own and the Party's Political survival.
Why cannot the Leader put a stop to this - no way, the party is actually fragmentise into various War Lord sectors and these WLs have been used to free loading all this time to ensure the "joker" is made LEADER . So do u think the "Leader will jeapardise his position by correcting their ways .Until a Leader who is Genuinely Nationalistic with wide vision comes into power, Malaysia is on the way to ZImbawee with the rate the country is plundered and bled.
God Save our King and Country !!

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written by hellosunshine, January 12, 2010 15:50:27

The latest plan for more plundering by the umnoputras is to allocate RM15 million to 'help' the helpless victims of divorce from the Muslim men who can go gallivanting/cavorting/screwing around without having to bear any responsibilities in maintenance or pay alimony to their ex-wives. The message the umnoputras are showing to these sex maniacs is for them to continue screwing around and the gomen will help pay for their trespasses and sins.

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written by betasigma, January 12, 2010 15:32:13

since the P.I.G musang hav made this sort of irresponsible statement reflecting on his men are not the willing party to serve n protect in this respect,he hav in fact opened the door ;n it would be an eye opener for malaysian by enlarge n the world if PAS,PKR n DAP the pakatan rakyat to declare n start mobilizing their grass root n members to protect the church,the mosque n the temple showing the world that they are the lot who actually stand on a much much higher moral ground than the evil government of the day,showing the portrait of good governance in waiting.pakatan,what are u waiting for??do it now.

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written by singhkris, January 12, 2010 14:27:32

Farish, there is one correction you need to make. India is a changed country. Nothing like Pakistan or Bangladesh. The Gujarat riots changed all that. The Hindus threw out the BJP from government because of their anti-Muslim and anti-Christian stance. BJP may never recover from this blow. The destruction of the Babri masjid was probably one of the few instances in history where a prayer house was destroyed. Hindus are known to pray in Muslims shrines regularly. Hindus are typically respecters of prayer houses. You do not hear of Hindu-Muslim riots anymore. It is because of the acceptance level of the younger generation of Hindus and Muslims. Probably it is one of the few places in the world where Muslim women do not feel repressed. Check it out!

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written by albert zacharias, January 12, 2010 13:39:58

Hi Farish...

It all boils down to the leaders of Malaysia who are unqualified to be called leaders. They are political opportunists preying on the lowly educated, not well read and educated populace.

If we don't learn from history then we are all dommed to repeat it. It all happened in 1969 and has not changed ever since. It actually gets worst because of new categorisation of certain race to be more superior but in actual fact are still getting handouts and clutches from the BN government.

It is the intention of the government of the day to maintain status quo so that they are kept in power. Sad to say, the dynamics of society have force races to think logically and BN's especially UMNO's ploys do not work anymore.

The more UMNO insist to play racial politics, the worst Malaysians are going to be.

Najib should act like OBAMA and says the buck stop with him.

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written by batsman, January 12, 2010 13:22:10

We have to start taking the new step of building a common Malaysian culture in a conscious manner. Malaysian cultural building takes place informally. Unfortunately, UMNO policy actively separates each race and each culture into competing and even antagonistic entities.

If there is no reapproachment and no cooperation, a common Malaysian culture acceptable to all is a pipe dream. The first step is to elect PR into office as the Federal Govt of Malaysia.

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written by a guest, January 12, 2010 12:06:15

"As of last week Malaysia has entered the inglorious list of countries where inter-religious tensions have risen to the point where places of worship have been attacked."

I think this happened around 1978 when Hindu temples were broken in various places. One place that comes to my mind is Kerling. After a long drawn court case the defenders were found guilty.

You sure you got your history right, Mr. Political Historian?

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